free at last

Let the countdown begin!  Baby Noah should be here in two and a half weeks, but I have developed a completely irrational fear that he will never come.  Yes, I realize this is crazy because he can't stay in there forever, but I also can't imagine going into labor anytime soon.  Thankfully my OB will only let me go about a week past his due date, so he should certainly be here by the first week in January (for tax reasons, everyone keeps telling me to make sure I have him before the end of the year, as if I'd wait longer if it were up to me...).  At my appointment last Thursday, which was a few days shy of 37 weeks, he weighed in at exactly 6 pounds, so it doesn't sound like I'll be having an enormous baby, and that is just fine by me.  I was 8 weeks early, and Jake and Ben were in the 7 pound range, so it seems fitting that Noah will be in the 7 pound range too.  The dilemma I am having with this is that I don't know what size clothing he'll wear, so I am stocking up on a few newborn and one preemie outfit just in case.   As Ben has pointed out several times, baby Noah already had more clothes than he does, but the majority are for 0-3 months or older, and I have a sneaking feeling those will be too big right away.  The good news about being half way through week 37 is that Noah is now considered full-term.  Of course the closer we get to 40 weeks the better, but at least he is fully developed should I unexpectedly go into labor.  I am having weekly OB appointments now, and at my appointment last Tuesday, I was only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced.  They will check me again next week, so I am crossing my fingers for progress.

As I near the end, I am still feeling pretty great.  I've noticed I get really tired after being on my feet for a long time (aka after a full day of shopping), but I am still able to exercise and generally have a good amount of energy.  The heartburn is still here but not as bad as before and sleeping hasn't gotten any easier.  To continue to prepare for his arrival, we completed a childbirth education class two weekends ago, and both Ben and I found it to be rather unhelpful.  The only important thing we learned is when to go to the hospital after labor starts, which is something I'm pretty sure my OB would have told me.  This weekend we're doing a breastfeeding class, and I am hopeful that it will be more informative.  We also met Noah's pediatrician yesterday and really liked him.  He'll come meet Noah the morning after he's born and check on him each day until we leave the hospital. 

In other news, I am finally free from work and officially on vacation!  It was a rough few weeks transitioning all of my projects, but eventually I wrapped almost everything up and hope to do minimal work for the rest of the month.  My first few days of vacation have consisted of a lot of errands to get ready for Christmas and Noah.  Ben and I adopted a family through an organization called Families First, and I had to deliver their gifts yesterday, so Monday involved a lot of shopping and wrapping.  It was really fun to get gifts for the family and we'll definitely make that a tradition.   I've also almost completed my Christmas shopping, and once that is done, it will be time to tackle some house projects and make some meals to freeze.  Ben is a little nervous about the nesting that has been happening but generally tries to humor me.

This past weekend we also had our first two Christmas parties, which unfortunately fell on the same night this and last year.  The first was Ben's work party, and it was great to spend time with all the wives I don't get to see enough.  Then we had a neighborhood party at the Millers' house, which was just as fun as last year except that I was completely sober (I figure I've made it this far, what is a few more weeks?).  We have three more parties this weekend, and I have to say that the maternity clothing world is sorely lacking in holiday attire.  I have searched everywhere for holiday outfits and come up with almost nothing, even if I were willing to spend a lot of money.  In the end, I found one shirt that is holiday-ish and have one that I can still wear even though it's not maternity, so I am scraping by. 

Since I don't have any good pictures of me from the last few weeks (I'll take one this weekend), I figured I'd share some George and Nibby holiday photos.  Jingle Dog, as George is now known as, loves his jingle collar, but the Nibby wasn't feeling it.  Also Ben has boycotted shaving since the middle of November and I'm not sure at this point what it will take to get him to shave.  Labor maybe?

Thanksgiving and the Nursery

With only four and a half weeks left, it is finally starting to hit us that we're having a baby.  There is actually going to be another person living here in just a few weeks, and I realized the other day while Ben was out of town that I may never stay at home by myself again.  So, at this point I am trying not to panic about all the things  I haven't yet done and just enjoy the final few weeks of freedom from being responsible for Noah.  That is easier said than done, however, because there seems to be so many projects I haven't tackled, including cleaning out the rest of our closets, cleaning out the fridge and pantry, packing my hospital bag and organizing all of Noah's clothes.  At least I am finished washing his clothes, so if he does surprise us by coming early, then he will have clean things to wear.  The saving grace with all of this is that I only have 6 more days of work, so once next Friday rolls around, I can really focus on his impending arrival as well as finish my Christmas shopping.

I am now 35 and a half weeks, and that makes Noah a little over five and a half pounds.  He is approximately the size of a honeydew melon, and while it is (sometimes) hard to imagine that I'm actually carrying that around, when I look at myself in the mirror I do realize how huge I look and that I'm getting bigger every day.  He is still pretty active and gets the hiccups a lot and my only complaints continue to be not sleeping and the occasional heartburn.  

I am happy to announce that we've checked one item off our to do list...finish the nursery!  It was hard to get good pictures but I did my best.  We still have the wall about his dresser to fill, and I think we'll do either his birth details (you can get really cute prints with all the details on etsy, my favorite place to shop) or some of his newborn pictures.

Two other items we crossed off our list were picking a pediatrician and touring the hospital.  We get the meet the pediatrician in early December (not that I have any idea what to ask him), and hopefully he will be at the hospital when Noah's born.  Our hospital tour went well, and I figure that in the midst of us panicking when I am actually in labor we will hopefully remember one or two things they told us like where to park and where to check in.

We also got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family in Ellijay, GA, which is a small town in the mountains about an hour north west of Atlanta.  Jake was here for a full week, and we spent three nights in the mountains with my parents and the dogs.  We didn't fall in love with our cabin (mainly due to the large number of bugs), but the view was pretty and we had fun spending time together and eating really good food.  My mom and I did some shopping on Black Friday at the outlets, and then Jake and I did more shopping when we got back to Atlanta, so I am happy to say that I'm at least half way done with my shopping!   And speaking of Christmas, we also got our tree and plan to decorate this weekend.

weeks 32 and 33 & my chapel hill shower

At almost 34 weeks, Noah has made it further along than I did (I was born at 32 weeks).  He is the size of an average cantaloupe, weighing 4 3/4 pounds.  It is hard to imagine that something that big fits into me and that he is getting so much bigger each week (he gains approximately 1/2 a pound per week).  On our second to last (yay!) ultrasound this morning, the tech confirmed he has a full head of hair, which explains the heartburn I have been having.  Of all the crazy things you hear about pregnancy symptoms, it sounds like this link may be true (Johns Hopkins thinks so at least -http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/health/20really.html).  Since he is so big (well technically average), the ultrasound pictures aren't great.  He still loves to cover his face with his hands, so this is the best profile picture we could get. And, yes, we realize his lips and nose look huge, but they promised he has a cute button nose.  We'll see...

34 weeks

Also, I have gotten several requests for a belly picture, so here I am:

34 weeks

Besides getting bigger each week, I feel pretty great.  Sleeping is still a  pain because I can't get comfortable, and both Ben and I caught colds this weeks, so the congestion has made sleeping even harder, but otherwise I feel as good as ever.  I keep waiting to feel worse, and maybe/hopefully I will be lucky enough to feel good until the end (famous last words?).  I will say that I have been extremely hot, so the start of winter couldn't come at a better time.  Poor George, Nibby and Ben (especially Nibby who hates the cold), are dying at our house because I keep turning the heat off.  I figure at least I'm saving money on the heating bill, and we can use that to buy the 10-12 diapers he will apparently go through every day.

Noah and I have had a pretty eventful couple of weeks.  Nesting has hit in full effect, so the disorganization of the closets and refrigerator at home are driving me crazy, which in turn is driving Ben crazy.  Ben was out of town last weekend visiting his family, and that gave me a chance to revamp all 3 closets downstairs.  The container store may become my home away from home for the next 6 weeks - it is basically a dream come true for someone who can't stand clutter.  I have several more projects lined up, so as soon as I'm done with work (12 more days!), I will get started.

Two weekends ago, Leni, Leslie, Jess, Kristen and Heather threw me a baby shower in Chapel Hill.  There were lots of amazing decorations, delicious food and fun games.  Noah and I are so blessed to have such great friends and overwhelmed by everything they have done for us.  We also are grateful to now be almost fully stocked with the baby items we think we need (yes, I expect we have plenty of things we don't need and that there are a million things I don't yet know that we need). 

The Nibby has helped us test out some of our gifts, namely some outfits and our stroller.  As you can see, he is definitely larger than a 0-3 month old baby.  I think he might be more in the 9-12 month size.

While I was in Chapel Hill, I got to see baby Annabelle again, who is still doing great (although she is keeping Leni up most of the night), and that same weekend was Madison's first birthday, so we got to celebrate with her.  It is hard to believe that just a year ago she was born - Noah will be able to learn a lot from her, and he is certainly meant to be with an older woman.

single digits and his name

The countdown to baby t's arrival is in the single digits...less than 9 weeks left until we get to meet him!  I figure it is about time to officially announce his name so I can stop referring to him as 'baby t'.  Baby t is going to be Noah Benjamin Thompson.  If we were having a girl, then I think choosing a name would have been significantly harder, but there were honestly very few names that both Ben and I liked.  Noah has always been one of our favorites, so it was pretty easy to decide after the doctor confirmed he was a he.  For his middle name, we wanted a family name and loved the idea of naming him after his dad (and his great grandfather we discovered).  Now the issue is that if we ever have another boy, then I have no idea what we'll call him...hopefully we'll have a girl (fingers crossed so I can buy dresses and bows!).

Noah is now about the size of a pineapple (or 4 naval oranges).  All 5 of his senses are fully developed, and he is supposedly developing sleep patterns, but I haven't really noticed that.  He does seem to be most active at night, but that could just be because I am laying down.  I am still feeling great and have no real complaints.  Sleeping is getting less and less comfortable, and I imagine it will get worse as I get bigger.  Ben and George are suffering too since I'm constantly getting up at night and shifting around in the bed (sorry boys!).

Noah and I have had a pretty fun past week.  I was up in RTP for work last Sunday through Thursday, so I got to see my family and a few friends.  It would have been nice to have seen more friends but work was really busy.  When I came home Thursday night, my mom followed me and stayed for the weekend for my first baby shower.  My amazing friends, Michelle, Jenny, Jess and Deanna threw me a wonderful shower on Saturday, and Noah got so many nice gifts.  It was a little overwhelming to get everything home and figure out where to put it all.  The nesting bug has definitely started to hit because all I want to do now is clean out our closests and put things away.  Ben tries to humor me as much as possible and has promised to help soon...

Here are some pictures from the shower.  I swear it could be in a magazine!

Our good friends Amir and Sharleen had their baby girl, Zara, on Sunday, so Noah has a playmate to meet in a few weeks.  We haven't meet Zara yet, but we hope to soon once they are home from the hospital and settled in.

And since you are all dying for more pictures of my two fur babies, here they are relaxing this past weekend with their dad.  Nibby pretty much lives on this part of the couch when we watch TV and George needs to be next to Ben at all times.  This means Noah and I have the rest of the couch to ourselves.

happy fall

I can't pinpoint exactly why I love fall so much, but it is without a doubt my favorite time of year.  I think it has something to do with the smell, the leaves changing, the food (pumpkin everything), football season and just the fact that we're getting close to Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It also doesn't hurt that I met Ben in the fall of 2001 (yes that was 11 years ago and that makes me feel old), and it reminds me of football season in college, which was pretty much non-stop fun.  I am also getting more and more excited about meeting baby t, and I can't believe he'll be here in a little over two months.

Speaking of baby t, he is now the size of a head of cabbage and weights a little over 3lbs.  As he has gotten bigger, he has definitely become even more active, and some of his rolls and kicks kind of hurt, so I am fearful of what it will feel like when he is twice this size.  It never gets old to feel him move around though, and Ben has a lot of fun poking him so he can feel him kick back. 

Baby t also got to add another trip to his list making him an even more well traveled baby.  The three of us had a fun weekend away in Helen, GA last weekend for my friend Sayako's surprise 30th birthday party (as well as Oktoberfest).  For those of you who don't know, Helen is a small German town about an hour and a half north of Atlanta.  Despite the facts that it was my first (and hopefully last) sober Oktoberfest and I am down one iphone, it was a lot of fun.  Sayako was definitely surprised and we had a great time celebrating with everyone.

This past weekend we stayed in Atlanta and got to spend some QT together, which included eating really good food (steaks for date night and little bangkok with Michelle and Jordan), watching football (good day for State but not so good for UNC), adding to the nursery (we're plus one book shelf and gilder, but the ottoman is still MIA...it was allegedly delivered to the wrong store but should be here 'sometime before the baby') and catching up with our neighbors.  I also decided to take up swimming in case running gets too hard as I get bigger and bigger, and I found out that I really like it!  I have been doing a water aerobics class (for pregnant people) for the past few weeks, and it inspired me to swim laps on Saturday while Ben was playing basketball.  My goal is to try to alternate swimming and running to mix things up for the next few weeks, so we'll see how that goes. 

Lastly, we all know this post wouldn't be complete without an update on George and Nibby.  They have been warming up to the nursery and checking out all the new items.  The Nibby is especially interested in his distant cousin, the tiger, as you can see by the investigation happening below.  George seems to also be the most interested in the tiger and has his eye on the stuffed Cat in the Hat that Ben's parents brought down a few weeks ago - I have a feeling that the Cat in the Hat may not still be with us when baby t arrives, but we'll see.

third trimester!

I've just started my 3rd trimester and have officially moved to having OB visits every other week.  I also passed my gestational diabetes test last week, so no carb cutting for me (!), which would be torture since I've been eating 2-3 bowls of cereal a day (no judging please, I learned it from Ben). 

Now that I'm in my 28th week, baby t is over 2lbs and the size of a roast (not sure what kind of roast, but I guess you get the idea) or eggplant, depending on who you ask.  He has started to open and close his eyes and is sucking his thumb.  He also gets hiccups from time to time, which feels odd and cute all at the same time.  Apparently baby t has GIANT feet as you can see from the 26 week u/s picture below.  He's too big to get all in one shot, so the tech got his enormous foot.

While looking at my calendar yesterday, I realized that Christmas is only 11 weeks away (yay!) and I only have 8 weeks left of work (double yay!).  My plan is to take off the 3 weeks before his due date so I can use all of my vacation before starting maternity leave.  I will also take all 12 weeks of maternity leave, so I'm looking at almost 4 months away from work, which sounds like heaven.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like my job more than most people, but who doesn't love a break?  I am imagining those 3 weeks in December before he arrives to involve a lot of the following:

1. Christmas Decorating
2. Christmas Shopping
3. Daytime TV (GMA, Ellen, HGTV, FoodNetwork, etc.)
4. Other TV (knowing that most of my usual shows might take breaks in December, I am planning to catch up on old seasons of shows people keep suggesting, including Downton Abby, Girls, Dexter, Homeland, etc. Please feel free to suggest your favs!)
5. Reading 'good' books and a few tween novels that most likely involve vampires or other supernatural creatures (please feel free to suggest books as well)
6. Baking and Eating - I figure by December I'll be past the point of trying to look cute, so I'll bake recipes I find on pinterest, like salted caramel cookie bars and pumpkin cream chesses muffins and eat them. 
7. Sleeping (if I can get comfortable)
8. Playing with Ben, George and Nibby

In addition to daydream about my upcoming vacation, I recently had a mini panic attack about the nursery not being ready, so Ben and I have made a good amount of progress, which included welcoming the new additions pictured below into our family.  We will share final nursery pics once everything is ready, but based on these pics it is no secret that we have an animal/jungle theme going on (it all started with elephants and we've expanded to include a few other animals as well).

Can you tell which animal is real?

George has not welcomed the new recruits with open arms.  In fact, we have videos to prove it - he spent the first hour they were home alternatively barking at them and sniffing them to confirm their identities.

One not-so-successful venture we've had is assembling baby t's crib.  Ben picked it up a few weekends ago only to find that a part was missing.  The company then shipped us the 'missing part', which turned out to be a duplicate of a part we already have.  Last Friday we finally got the piece we need, so this weekend we were able to put it together along with the changing table.  We got a fully assembled dresser (I figure Ben needed a break) a few weeks ago, so now we're just waiting on the bookcase and glider.  Our other big ongoing task is picking fabric for the curtains, and after 4 trips to the nearby fabric stores, we've narrows it down from 20+ fabrics to 2.  Hopefully we can make a decision this week so they'll be ready sometime before Thanksgiving...

Aside from prepping the nursery, I had a fun weekend away a few weekends ago in Charleston for my friend Eve's bachelorette party.  We were lucky enough to get 2 gorgeous days, so we had a lot of pool time at our rental house.  We also ate at an amazing restaurant, Cypress, that I recommend to anyone visiting Charleston.  Sadly I will not be able to make Eve's wedding because it's 3 weeks before baby t's due date.  This is especially disappointing because it's at the Carolina Inn where Ben and I got married, and I was really looking forward to staying there again and having another reunion with everyone going. 

This past weekend, Ben and I were finally home together, so in addition to assembling furniture, we got to see a lot of our friends (thanks to the Kidds for feeding us and letting Ben take over your TV), meet Kyle and Julia's daughter Swift, attend an adorable 1 year old birthday party for Josh and Melissa's son Henry, watch NC State beat Florida and go to Taste of Atlanta.  Taste of Atlanta is a food and wine festival where restaurants from all over the city set up booths and offer small tastings from their menu.  Both this year and last year we got VIP tickets, which provided access to the wine and beer tent that offered as much free wine and beer tastings as you can handle.  Sadly, I think that was somewhat of a waste on me because last year I tasted 20+ wines, and this year I tasted a whopping 0 (after the stares I got from carrying an empty, unused glass, I can't imagine the stares I'd have gotten with a full glass).  Next year we'll bring baby t and make up for it.

In other news, our friends Ben and Kelley had their baby girl last Saturday, and Cam and Leni's little girl Annabelle came home from the NICU last Tuesday and is doing great.  Baby t can't wait to meet them both next year.

Oh and I FINALLY got around to making Ben take a real picture of me so you can see how big I've gotten.  This was right at 28 weeks (and yes, I did get a haircut for those of you who've seen me recently, it was a long time coming).

 

less than 4 months and counting

I'm almost 26 weeks along and approaching the end of my second trimester!  Baby t is the length of a an English hothouse cucumber or a burp cloth (really? neither of these seem like good analogies to me), which means he is around 14 inches long.  Another source says he's the size of a head of lettuce, which is much easier to imagine, so we'll stick with that.  Apparently he now has eyelashes and is taking his first breaths of amniotic fluid.  I can also feel his kicks much more strongly and frequently than before, and while that is so fun, it has made it harder to sleep because he's extremely active when I'm in bed.   Speaking of kicks, as you can see from his latest ultrasound pic, his foot looks HUGE, so that explains a lot...

Since we recently had a weekend at home together, which is a rarity these days, we decided to paint the nursery (ok, mostly it was Ben painting and me watching, but I did help some).  Of course we also had help from bubby and nibby, and as you can see by the picture below, bubby really did try to help by sitting against a wet wall so he could spread paint around the room.  The best part is that we now have at least one of his hairs permenantely painted to the wall.  I like to think he wanted to leave his permenant mark in his new brother's room.



I took it as my responsibility to keep bubby occupied while Ben finished painting



Speaking of bubby, he is officially a year older!  We celebrated his 6th birthday on September 12th.  I was unfortunately out of town for the big day, but Ben made sure he got some extra attention.

We also had some other birthdays to celebrate.  Cam and Leni had their little girl, Annabelle, 6 weeks early on September 10th.  She's beautiful and doing really well.  I got to meet and hold her when she was just two days old and can't wait for her to meet baby t. 

Two sets of our friends, Kyle and Julia and Kent and Annie, had their little girls this month too, but we haven't had a chance to meet them yet.  Baby t really will have his pick of beautiful ladies to date in a few years...

After meeting little Annabelle, I spent the weekend with some of my best girlfriends from college for our alpha chi beach reunion.  This is our second year in a row at Ocean Isle, and we plan to make it a tradition.  I will say that it was quite different than last year  since I wasn't drinking, but I figure I'll just make up for it next year when I leave our 8 month old home with Ben.  Fortunately, there were three of us who weren't drinking, so I wasn't alone with my mocktails (thanks MG for the intro to ginger beer!).  Also, my sweet friends gave us a mini shower that included a delicious cookie cake (Ben says thanks for the leftovers) and a piece of artwork made just for baby t by Mary Grace.



Thanks Casey for providing my first AX t-shirt since 2005!






week 23

I am trying to get better about posting updates more often, so yay for those of you who check! 

I'm almost 24 weeks, which means baby t will be here in just 4 months (or sooner, hopefully, so we can be home with him for Christmas).  I asked my doctor at my appointment this week if they'd induce me on/around my due date, and understandably, she said not until he was a week late.  I really hope he comes in 2012, but I know he'll come when he is good and ready.  Interestingly, I was measuring 27 weeks, so perhaps we have a giant baby in there and he will want to come out early!

We haven't made any more progress on his nursery, but the paint did arrive last week, so we're thinking about painting this weekend.  Ben already primed the room and taped it, so the hard stuff is out of the way.  This is one of our only semi-free weekends over the next few months, so I figure we'd better get started.  And, knowing me, I'd really like the nursery to be done yesterday because I am so impatient.

In other news, we had a great Labor Day weekend thanks to Drew and Sayeh visiting from Philly.  Drew, who Ben met in law school, is one of our closest friends, and we hadn't seen him in a long time.  Another good friend, Ryan, also stopped by for a night last week because he was in town for the NC State game at the Georgia Dome (I won't say any more about the kickoff of football season since both our teams unfortunately lost). 

To show Drew and Sayeh a good time, we let George and Nibby love on them, fed them (and tried Persian food for the first time, thanks Sayeh!) and showed them a few highlights the city has to offer, including Piedmont Park, World of Coke, and the Braves (our luck of course that the Braves v. Phillies game we went to was the only game the Phillies lost).



We had the pleasure of holding the torch from the London Olympics (why it is at World of Coke, I have no idea)



impressive, huh?

And obviously this posting wouldn't be complete without an update on George and Nibby.  They had the pleasure of seeing their vet this week, and I am happy to say Bubby's down 6lbs thanks to our recently exercise regime.  Unfortunately, the Nibby's only down 1oz and is still 'slightly overweight' (read: borderline obese), so we're cutting back on his food, which means he wakes me up even more often in the middle of the night because he is hungry.  I figure this is good practice for when the baby comes, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.